Wang Yang-ming

Wang Yang-ming , 1472-1529, Chinese philosopher. He developed an idealist interpretation of Confucianism that denied the rationalist dualism of the orthodox philosophy of Chu Hsi . Wang believed that universal moral law is innate in man and discoverable through self-cultivation. In contrast to the orthodox Confucian reliance on classical studies (see Chinese literature ) as a means to self-cultivation, Wang stressed self-awareness and the unity of knowledge and action. One school of his followers emphasized achievement of mystical enlightenment in a manner strikingly similar to Zen Buddhism .

Wang Yang-ming (Jap., Ō Yōmei; 1472–1529). Chinese philosopher, soldier, and statesman, of the Ming dynasty. He was a follower of the Confucian school who incorporated into his own teachings Buddhist and Taoist insights. His principal tenets include the unity of knowledge and action and the paradoxical identity between mind and heart (hsin) and li (‘principle’, referring to being, and to virtue). The Yangming school became very popular in late Ming China (16th cent.), and spread as well to Japan, as Yōmei-gaku, where it gained adherents among the lower samurais, many of whom worked actively for the success of the Meiji restoration in the 19th cent.